Police, help. Someone's stealing my drugs.

[Lusankya]

Yes, hydroponically grown dope is illegal in South Australia.

'Police, help. Someone's stealing my drugs'

By Michael Milnes

A MAN faces drugs charges after calling police to report his cannabis plants were being stolen.
The 35-year-old Adelaide man told police that up to six men smashed the front window on his house and gained entry about 3.30am.

Police spokesman Senior Constable Mick Abbott said the men started ‘’stealing portions of the plants growing inside the house’’.

‘’He called police to the scene but they were unable to find the men involved. Police then returned with a drug warrant and found six cannabis plants growing hydroponically in two rooms of the house,’’ Sen Constable Abbott said.

The house owner was charged with cultivating cannabis plants for sale.

[SCRawl]

Yeah, that's the down side to doing illegal stuff: you can't call the cops when someone else decides to fuck with your operation. You'd think that someone mixed up in it ought to know that, but then again, we're probably not dealing with the cream of the intellectual crop here.

[Patrick Degan]

Yeah, that's the down side to doing illegal stuff: you can't call the cops when someone else decides to fuck with your operation. You'd think that someone mixed up in it ought to know that, but then again, we're probably not dealing with the cream of the intellectual crop here.

But on the upside, cases like this one add comedy value to the police reports.

[Death from the Sea]

this kind of thing happens alot. Usually the only ones to let it slip that it was drugs stolen, is the occasional crack head or a doper that is high at the time of the report.

[aerius]

Most of the pot growers around here are smart enough to grow their dope on other people's property. The ones who aren't tend to end up in jail after the cops get called to their homes for every other reason other than pot (fire, disturbing the peace, domestics, etc), and then find pot in their homes.

[Raw Shark]

‘’He called police to the scene but they were unable to find the men involved.

Yeah, I bet they scrambled the chopper.

[houser2112]

‘’He called police to the scene but they were unable to find the men involved. Police then returned with a drug warrant and found six cannabis plants growing hydroponically in two rooms of the house,’’ Sen Constable Abbott said.

So the police needed a special warrant to charge him with growing pot plants, even though they were already lawfully in the house? What if they had noticed some other illegal activity, would they have required a warrant for that as well?

[Resinence]

Um, regardless of whether he let them in the house or not, I don't think they can prosecute him on anything within his property without a search warrant. Though IANAL so *shrug*

[Zed Snardbody]

Um, regardless of whether he let them in the house or not, I don't think they can prosecute him on anything within his property without a search warrant. Though IANAL so *shrug*

They returned with a warrant. While they were at the scene of the burglary they probably encountered something that warranted reasonable suspicion. Thus the warrant was granted.

[Resinence]

Sorry, I was replying to house and should have quoted him.

So the police needed a special warrant to charge him with growing pot plants, even though they were already lawfully in the house? What if they had noticed some other illegal activity, would they have required a warrant for that as well?

[Drooling Iguana]

So the police needed a special warrant to charge him with growing pot plants, even though they were already lawfully in the house? What if they had noticed some other illegal activity, would they have required a warrant for that as well?

Since getting the warrant would likely be trivially easy in this case, the police were probably just taking the opportunity to dot their "T"s and cross their "I"s.

[Stark]

And - call me crazy - actually try to investigate the reported theft that just happened. Australia doesn't have nearly as many protections against search etc as the US does. To be honest, they probably just didn't care (particularly since they had been 'stolen') and then went back with a warrant to be above board and see if he was dumb enough to still have them, having already mentioned them to a policeman in a report.

In my experience, cops in AU aren't as frothing-at-the-mouth over a few dope plants as American cops seem to be. He would have just got a fine anyway, which he probably would have got regardless.

[Kamakazie Sith]

And - call me crazy - actually try to investigate the reported theft that just happened. Australia doesn't have nearly as many protections against search etc as the US does. To be honest, they probably just didn't care (particularly since they had been 'stolen') and then went back with a warrant to be above board and see if he was dumb enough to still have them, having already mentioned them to a policeman in a report.

In my experience, cops in AU aren't as frothing-at-the-mouth over a few dope plants as American cops seem to be. He would have just got a fine anyway, which he probably would have got regardless.

Frothering at the mouth and required to do so by law are two different things. This would have been a felony in the US, and police are required to act on felonies.

Um, regardless of whether he let them in the house or not, I don't think they can prosecute him on anything within his property without a search warrant. Though IANAL so *shrug*

Even in the US they did not have to because he gave them consent to enter, and therefore a lawful right to be there so then probable cause based off of plain sight is sustained.

[Stark]

Can you read? They knew he had dope: he would have been prosecuted anyway. They probably just returned to seize them. AU isn't the US. Again, the article says they found the drugs when they returned - it doesn't even say it was the same cops. Responding to the reported breakin and investigating the dope could just be seperate acts.

[Kamakazie Sith]

Can you read? They knew he had dope: he would have been prosecuted anyway. They probably just returned to seize them. AU isn't the US. Again, the article says they found the drugs when they returned - it doesn't even say it was the same cops. Responding to the reported breakin and investigating the dope could just be seperate acts.

What? Why does your response fail to acknowledge anything I said. I said nothing about them knowing or not knowing he had dope. I didn't say it was the US. I didn't say anything about the acts being seperate or not.

I was pointing out that just because US police will go after pot plants isn't so much that they're "frothing at the mouth", but that they are required by law to go after them. In other words...no choice in the matter. It was you that made the frothing at the mouth comment, correct?

[Stark]

Oh, sorry: I thought you were saying that since it's also a felony in AU, that they had 'turned a blind eye' or something by not going after it. I misunderstood what you were getting at.

[Lusankya]

And - call me crazy - actually try to investigate the reported theft that just happened. Australia doesn't have nearly as many protections against search etc as the US does. To be honest, they probably just didn't care (particularly since they had been 'stolen') and then went back with a warrant to be above board and see if he was dumb enough to still have them, having already mentioned them to a policeman in a report.

In my experience, cops in AU aren't as frothing-at-the-mouth over a few dope plants as American cops seem to be. He would have just got a fine anyway, which he probably would have got regardless.

Actually, since they were being grown hydroponically, he'd be looking at more than a fine. If they'd been outdoors, then it would have just been a misdemeanour, but hydropnics are a felony.


And part of the reason that having a small amount of marijuana is only a misdemeanour in SA is because the cops weren't enforcing the anti-dope laws. Pretty much none of them could see the point in giving someone a criminal record just because they had a bit of the happy tobaccy. These days the anti-marijuana laws get enforced a lot more rigorously, because the cops have absolutely no problem with giving people a $60 fine. So yeah, by South Australian standards, at least, the US cops are "frothing at the mouth" over marijuana simply because they're actually enforcing the law.

[Stark]

Great, except they apparently didn't find them till later, so why would the hydro make any difference to the responding officer's reactions? The article doesn't have enough information to know what happened (even if it was the same cops, what exactly the guys said to the cops, etc) so it's just guesswork. Bogans are idiots is what it basically says, and we knew that already.

My reference to 'frothing at the mouth' was one to the American practice of imprisoning these people as serious criminals, as opposed to the AU mostly-fine approach. I've actually never heard of anyone being imprisoned for home-grown dope at all, but people get fined thousands of dollars easily.

But jesus let's hope this doesn't turn into another 'zomg dope is 100% a-ok' thread. Ein's not here yet, at least.

[aerius]

But jesus let's hope this doesn't turn into another 'zomg dope is 100% a-ok' thread.

Here in Canada, it's perfectly legal to have a 50 acre marijuana farm.

[Lusankya]

Great, except they apparently didn't find them till later, so why would the hydro make any difference to the responding officer's reactions? The article doesn't have enough information to know what happened (even if it was the same cops, what exactly the guys said to the cops, etc) so it's just guesswork. Bogans are idiots is what it basically says, and we knew that already.

My reference to 'frothing at the mouth' was one to the American practice of imprisoning these people as serious criminals, as opposed to the AU mostly-fine approach. I've actually never heard of anyone being imprisoned for home-grown dope at all, but people get fined thousands of dollars easily.

Hydroponics is usually an indicator that they're producing "commercial" quantities. Six hydroponically grown plants is enough to earn you over $10,000/year. Hydroponically grown plants have a greater yield than garden-grown plants, and you can have about 4 harvests a year, so this would be the equivalent of him growing perhaps 30 plants in his backyard.

The government has nothing against private use, but they do dislike dealing - when you're producing that much, it generally goes interstate, and then the other governments get pissy with our government, and it's all annoying.

[Stark]

Again, since they apparently didn't find the hydro until they came back, that's irrelevant. It sounds (from the really short article) like they went round, interviewed the guy, then came back and searched. The presence of things can't affect their decisions until they actually find it. Without actual information (ie, what the guy told the cops on the phone, what he told the responding officers, etc) it's impossible to know when the cops worked out what he had.

[Lusankya]

I think it's the wrong time of year for non-hydro plants as well. IIRC, they grow through spring and summer, so they could very well have just guessed that any marijuana would be hydroponic. Or he could have had the set-up not very well hidden.

[Stark]

Of course, but that really does raise the question of why they came back. There's no reason in AU that they'd need a warrant if they're already there investigating a crime, so the only thing that makes sense to me is that they interviewed him, when back and sent someone out to search.

[Patrick Degan]

I believe this issue about warrants has to do with the "plain sight" exceptions to warrantless searches. You go into a place investigating one crime and find out in plain sight evidence of another crime. Courts have held that such evidence can be seized and admitted at trial for that crime even though warrants were not issued, because the evidence in question was out in the open and the police could not help but see it right there and then. You are not allowed to get away with this for evidence which is not in ready view. For any other circumstance, you better have that warrant or the evidence gets tossed.

[Ma Deuce]

Here in Canada, it's perfectly legal to have a 50 acre marijuana farm.

Provided of course, it's only used to make stuff other than dope .